[LonePalm]

I wouldn't be so fast to poo-poo the wind explanation.

That ship has a LOT of sail area. It was doing eight maybe nine knots. (I just looked up the speed restrictions for the Suez canal. It is 8.6 knots for non-tankers. Not bad for eyeballing it.).

At 8.5kn you are traveling 286 yards per minute. That is greater than the width of the canal and 2/3 the length of the ship. Things can go bad VERY fast. At that point inertia is not your friend.

WWG1WGA

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Porkchop]

***I wouldn’t be so fast to poo-poo the wind explanation.
That ship has a LOT of sail area. It was doing eight maybe nine knots. (I just looked up the speed restrictions for the Suez canal. It is 8.6 knots for non-tankers. Not bad for eyeballing it.).

At 8.5kn you are traveling 286 yards per minute. That is greater than the width of the canal and 2/3 the length of the ship. Things can go bad VERY fast. At that point inertia is not your friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We transit the canal too.
A video of the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) transiting in 2012.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8puC1NYMx8k

(BTW, thanks for your service LP)

[meyer]

inertia....

I’ve yet to meet a boat or ship that can stop on a dime. Unless the entire waterway is lined with dimes. I remember the good old days of docking the 20 foot boat. It wasn’t bad except when the river current was high, then there was a lot of anticipatory maneuvering to get it to slip into the proper slot.

[The Klingon]

I would bet wind